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In this article Jong-Ae Kim, a librarian from South Korea, discusses the benefits of establishing communities of practice within the field of librarianship. Through her discussion, Kim not only defines a CoP, she also describes the levels of participation of its members and presents a possible timeline that relevant CoPs go through to establish their value within the profession. Kim then goes on to lay out the potential uses of CoPs within each specific type of library such as academic, public, school, and special libraries. I think it is important to note that while she sees the importance for CoPs among librarians serving similar populations, she ends the article with a discussion on the professional benefits of creating CoPs among librarians from all different types of organizations.

I appreciated this article. Not only did it help to continue to clarify my learning about COPs, it also provided a great context in tying it to the changing landscapes of libraries. Library education is certainly evolving and can now be seem on the forefront of some innovative educational movements, such as design thinking and the maker movement. It was also enlightening to see them as vehicles to drive communities of practice in many different settings.